The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance having a heat-insulating housing, a storage compartment for refrigerated items that is accommodated in the housing, and a water reservoir. A refrigeration appliance of this kind is known from WO 03/033976 A1.
The water reservoir of such a refrigeration appliance generally serves for supplying a drinking water dispenser which is mounted on an external surface of the housing of the refrigeration appliance and is in thermal contact with the storage compartment in order to ensure that its contents, and hence the drinking water drawn off at the dispenser, are cooled.
In order to prevent the contents of the reservoir from freezing at temperatures of the storage compartment below 0° C., the reservoir in the known refrigeration appliance is incorporated in an insulating layer of the door so that it assumes a temperature between that of the storage compartment and the ambient temperature.
Embedding the reservoir in insulation material on all sides means that when water has been drawn off and the reservoir is replenished with fresh water, it takes a very long time for the contents of the reservoir to assume their stationary temperature once more. Furthermore, the storage compartment must have a considerably lower temperature than the desired stationary temperature of the reservoir so that the latter temperature reaches a value that is acceptable to the user; in other words, the storage compartment must be at freezing temperature. A further problem is that the temperature in the reservoir is dependent on the ambient temperature of the refrigeration appliance.